Claridge’s guard ‘stole guest’s pendant’

A security guard at Claridge's stole a £200,000 pendant deposited in the guest safe by a world-renowned art dealer, a court heard.

Steven Harrison, 33, pocketed the necklace after its owner, German fine art collector Ronald Fuhrer, left it at the Mayfair hotel for safe keeping, it is claimed.

The adamite-encrusted pendant had been created as an exclusive commission for Mr Fuhrer by Joel Arthur Rosenthal, the world's best known jewellery designer.

Harrison was linked to the theft after the stolen piece turned up for sale at Christie's in Geneva, and police traced it back to him via a small jeweller in Cornwall, jurors at Southwark crown court were told.

Harrison told detectives that he had been cleaning out the safe when he had found the pendant. He said he had made a lost property report and unsuccessfully tried to find out who the owner was.

Harrison, of Battersea, denies theft between May 2005 and September 2006. The trial continues.